The Quiet in Between
by potNpaN
Summary: As V4 closes, Qrow Branwen finds himself musing over the last few months with an unlikely companion. Something short that came to my mind. One-shot.


**A/N: Er. For everyone who was waiting for AAA to upload... that's coming tomorrow, I promise. For everyone else, welcome to something I wrote in about an hour and a half, something that I really wanted to do just... cause XD. IDK, it's just something I could imagine happening after V4. Hope y'all enjoy :)**

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Qrow wasn't the type of person to care what other people thought of him, and that showed in every aspect of his life, including his drinking one.

As the doors to the bar creaked open, heels clicking through, Qrow could notice several of the other customers turning to look at the newcomer, reactions mixed. The Hunter didn't turn to look though. He was above such things when he was honored the great gods of booze and downing another glass of... something. He couldn't quite recall what the bartender had given him, but it was strong and cheap, which were the only requirements that Qrow required for a good drink.

A trained Hunter can hear and trace footsteps almost perfectly, giving them an edge for fighting several Grimm, or people, at the same time, and with every step that the newcomer made, another conclusion was pulled into Qrow's mind, springing up and narrowing down on whether the person was dangerous or not.

 _Clack._

The footstep was light, so either it was a younger person or a female.

 _Clack._

The next footstep seemed to originate a little further left, but closer as well, so they seemed to be circling Qrow's auditory range. It was definitely female, in that there was no way a guy could step that delicately and in such a roundabout manner. That, and Qrow highly doubted that a guy, no matter how pretty, would attract so many male gazes towards them.

 _Clack._

As the sound of heels hitting the wooden floor got closer, Qrow was pretty sure he could hear a slightly metallic sound of metal hitting against cloth, which meant that there was something tied to the hip of the woman, probably an exposed sword of some type, which also meant that the woman was more than likely a Huntress.

 _Clack_.

Qrow lowered his glass as he felt the newcomer's presence stand beside him. He didn't turn though, instead continuing to examine the glass he had in his hand, turning it left and right and admiring how the light shone off of it.

"If you think that I'm gonna be treating you to a drink, you're a little crazier than I thought, Ice Queen." Only then did Qrow actually turn, looking at the Atlas specialist. The woman flicked one of her pale bangs to the side and raised an eyebrow, no sign of amusement on her face.

"On the other hand," Qrow raised a hand to signal the bartender to pour him a drink, nodding in thanks as the man did so. "If you're going to be _paying_ for my drinks, then... well, be my guest and sit down." The grizzled man gestured to the seat beside him grandly, half bowing to the Schnee.

Again the woman didn't move a muscle, keeping her arms crossed, her posture as annoyingly perfect as it always is. In response, Qrow shifted a little lower, slumping as low as he could possibly go.

"And if you're going to just stand there and do nothing..." Qrow pointed to the other side of the bar, where there were several rough-looking men staring intently at him, or more likely at Winter. "You can go and grace your presence other there. Where you _aren't_ ruining my perfectly good view."

The woman turned around slowly, making a show of looking at the wall behind her, gray and paint peeling off of it. She turned, and for the first time since she walked into the bar, spoke.

"The view of the wall?" She asked dubiously. Qrow squinted and just as exaggeratedly looked at the wall, as if discovering that it was there for the first time. Finally he nodded, an expression flitting across his face.

"Yeah. The wall." He shrugged. "Better view than what I'm seeing right now at least."

Winter didn't say anything to contradict him, instead pulling the barstool backwards, sitting down with all the practiced grace that she had been raised with, probably having to spend a month or two with a private tutor on how to sit properly in rickety bar stools.

Qrow didn't give her the satisfaction of him asking what she was doing here, and why she decided to sit next to him. He wasn't... or hadn't been, Ozpin's spymaster if he didn't have patience. She might have been raised to manipulate an opponent of high standings, but Qrow had the hard earned experience of living through those kind of manipulations, learning by the seat of his pants, finding out what worked and what didn't with trial by fire. Sometimes literally.

And so Qrow waited, enjoying his drink, savoring the intense flavors of wood chips and rubbing alcohol, practically making an act out of his next sip, daintily putting his lips against the glass and closing his eyes, sighing as he took in the slightest bit of drink. All while Winter looked intensely at him, eyes flickering with emotion and impatience. Heh. She might've grown a little older since the first time Qrow had met her, but he still had a good decade over her. He would win in these kind of battles a hundred percent of the time, except for the times he didn't want to, of course.

"I don't think poisoning yourself so soon after your last one is such a good idea."

Winter's voice came out rough, but not because of anger, or anything else directed towards him. In fact, the cadence was so different from what Qrow was used to hearing from her that he turned and quirked an eyebrow, making sure that he hadn't just imagined her saying that. He hadn't of course, but it was easier to accept than Winter starting a polite conversation with him.

He wasn't drunk enough for this.

Pointing towards the bartender, Qrow tilted his head to the side. "You paying or what?"

Winter rolled her eyes but pulled out a stainless white lien card, marked with the words ATLAS ARMY, instead of the letters SDC like the Hunter had expected it to. He didn't say anything of course, and just finished his old drink fast enough to signal for another fill, this time gesturing for the bartender to fill out another glass, handing the shot to Winter.

The white-haired beauty wrinkled her nose, but took the drink politely, nodding in thanks even when she knew that it was coming out of her money anyways.

"You didn't answer my question." Winter said, pressing a little harder. Qrow made a face, and set down his glass, waving her away with his hand.

"I'm fully healed anyways. And at this point, what's a little bit of drink gonna do to me?" The caped man rolled his eyes. "Please, my body's so used to this amount of alcohol it'd probably go into withdrawal if I didn't have this much in me at all times."

Winter scowled, the lines on her forehead deepening in interesting ways, at least to Qrow's drunken mind. His fingers twitched before he was able to keep the urge to touch Winter's forehead down, instead using that hand to pull his glass upwards into the air, waiting for Winter to do the same.

She sat there, not responding for a second, stubbornly putting the point across that she wasn't going to fall for his every demand like last time, and after making sure that he understood, raised her glass, tapping it against his and lifting it up to her lips, a face of disgust lining her face as she tasted the fluid. The look brought a smirk on Qrow's face, quickly hidden as Winter glared at him.

"So Ice Queen," He said, happily trying to move onto another subject, "what brings you out to such a bar as this one? I mean, surely a specialist of the Atlas Army as well as a daughter of the SDC company can find better... company than here." Qrow waved his had around at the people sitting behind him.

"What are you doing here?" She shot back, leaning forward. "And no, I don't mean why are you in this bar in particular." Qrow shut his mouth, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing... here? And not out _there_." Still he didn't get it until Winter whispered the last words. "With your niece and her friends?"

The tired man didn't answer right away, a hand absentmindedly tracing where he had been scratched by the scorpion faunus, whatever the crazy was named.

"I'll catch up to them later. They'll be fine without me for another few days." Qrow shrugged again, hand reaching for the glass before realizing it was empty. He frowned and raised his hand for another drink, before Winter stopped him and raised her hand instead.

"Give me the best brandy you have on you." The man nodded and disappeared, leaving the two of them alone at the bar. Qrow turned to look at Winter appreciatively, to which she just brushed her hair to the side imperiously, tilting her nose into the air.

"I simply think that if we are going to drink, I'd rather I drink something worth it." She said, defending herself. Qrow chuckled lowly, shaking his head.

"No one said anything about you having to drink Ice Queen. But, uh, thanks. I guess."

She didn't respond, instead staring at the doorway that the bartender had went into. They both pretended not to see the light blush dusted across the specialist's face.

"You know, here's another thought that came to mind," Qrow said suddenly, remembering something through the haze that the alcohol brought on. "Why are you here? And not, I dunno, looking for your sis?" Winter's gaze snapped onto him, the surprise on her face evident.

"Hey, just because things are in chaos doesn't mean I haven't kept up with my contacts. There _is_ a reason why Ozzy left the spy work to me you know." He leaned close, whispering in her ear. "I'm _real_ good at it." Winter shoved him away, lips pursed into a flat line. The man just laughed, perking up as the bartender came with a bottle of Atlas Brandy. Pouring a shot for the both of them, the bartender made his way to put the bottle back, before being stopped by Winter.

"I'll take the whole bottle," She said quietly, to which the man nodded, not fazed one bit by the request, leaving right after to service the other patrons.

"Wow. Who knew you were that kind of girl. You know, I don't think drinking that much is good for you." Qrow said, pretending to whisper. Winter didn't even have the energy to respond, instead sipping at her filled glass, eyes closing in appreciation. The raven-haired man decided to do the same, letting the warmth of the drink flow through him.

There were a lot of choice words he could say to describe Atlas, but they did make some good drink.

"Regardless of what you think, I _am_ here to find my sister."

The man looked over, both eyebrows raised in surprise. Winter didn't move, her eyes focused on some faraway object.

"As you know, she left the Schnee mansion after... dealing with our family." Winter struggled to talk, and tried to drink again in hopes that it would help her find the right words. "My family is not... very welcoming. Not even to our own."

Qrow nodded, his cheek resting on one of his hands. "Yeah, wow, I would've never guessed something like that."

White hair whipped around as Winter glared at the man, lips once again pursed tightly. Man, he loved that look.

"As I was saying," Winter growled, before composing herself again. "I assumed that she would try and find her partner again, as I cannot think of anywhere else she could possibly be headed." The man nodded, thoughts moving.

"Yeah, I can see that." Winter relaxed a little, shoulders lowering as Qrow answered seriously. "I can definitely see a Schnee having a hard time making friends unless they were forcibly paired up with each other."

"That is not the point!" Winter said loudly, teeth grinding together, fists tight. Qrow seemed to be the only person that could move her so easily, make her lose control without her noticing. It aggravated her. She didn't even know why she had decided to meet him now of all times, after she knew that he had probably downed three bottles' worth of questionable liquor.

"The point is... that I was hoping you could point out where she could be going, or at least where your niece would be heading, so that I can at least make sure that she is safe." Winter said calmly, taking care to make sure that she was polite and controlled as always. _Qrow does not have a foothold over me_ , she thought. It's utterly preposterous to even think so.

Qrow looked at the woman sitting opposite of him carefully, a finger tracing along the rim of his glass.

"Did you expect this?"

"Excuse me?" Winter asked, caught off by the sudden and unrelated question. Qrow hesitated, his finger stopping before he repeated his question.

"Did you ever expect any of this to happen?" He said, before pointing to the flickering screen in the bar, where the Vale news was documenting all the damage that had happened so many months ago, many people still greatly affected by the fallout. "Do you ever think of your sister and find her to have grown up too quickly? And in all the wrong ways?"

Winter winced, the question seemingly sending shockwaves through her. She glanced away, eyes glued onto the glass in front of her. It was enough of an answer for Qrow, who spun and grabbed the bottle, popping its cork and refilling both of their glasses.

"No." The response was quiet, quiet enough that Qrow almost missed it. "I did not imagine something like this to happen. Could anyone?" She turned to look at Qrow, a sad smile on her face. Her tight bun was falling apart, strands falling off and framing her face, the tips tickling her chin.

Qrow shook his head, chuckling softly. "No. I don't think anyone could've imagined something like this happening." He sighed, recalling the kind of Hell that everyone in Vale, Dust, all of Remnant was going through because of the fall of Beacon. "We lost a few good people that night." Qrow murmured.

"And how many more the following months afterwards?" Winter asked, though not to be mean. Her tone was speculative, glass touching her lips, but her not quite drinking it yet. "How many people have died protecting the innocent? How many have fallen because of... the opposition? And how many have simply disappeared?"

"Too many." Qrow answered, to which Winter dipped her head once.

"There's too much happening out there." Winter said, gesturing to the door that led to the outside. "Too much to keep track of sometimes." The lonely woman leaned over, more of her hair escaping the bun. "Maybe that's why I'm here. To escape, if only for a little while."

Qrow looked at her, thoughts flying around. Most of them were pretty stupid, but... well. When weren't his thoughts dumb?

"I learned that pretty early on in life." He answered easily, tapping the flask on his side. "Glad to see someone else finding similar wisdom." Qrow grinned as Winter looked up, doubt evident on her face.

"I wouldn't call this wisdom." She said. He voice was filled with something light, as if she found that arguing with Qrow wasn't really the way to go, at least for tonight. Qrow just shrugged.

"Good enough for you though, right? At least for now?"

"At least for now." Winter agreed, emptying her glass. She stood up, glancing at her watch. "I should go. I'm going to need to find Weiss, maybe give her a hand."

A hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from moving. Winter turned around to look at Qrow, to find emotions that struck her deep. There was a hurt, but also a little bit of warmth, and maybe a dash of hopefulness.

Her face quickly mirrored his own, her heartbeat rising fast.

"Stay," He croaked out, pulling her back down onto the seat. "Ruby—Weiss, we'll still know where they're going. A few hours isn't going to cause them to leave us behind."

Winter had a hard time saying anything, her throat dry. Even with all that drink, she could feel the desert in her throat.

"Us?" She managed to say, to ask him. Qrow didn't hesitate, a small smile on his face.

"First time for everything." He whispered, and pulled her in close.

First time for everything indeed.


End file.
